Strategic Planning Challenges and Solutions: Heathrow Airport Report

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of strategic planning and development challenges at Heathrow Airport in London. It begins by outlining the importance of strategic planning in the aviation industry and then delves into specific challenges related to terminal and runway capacity, accessibility, and environmental concerns. The report examines the increasing demands of air travel and the limitations of Heathrow's existing infrastructure, including the proposed third runway and its associated challenges such as environmental impact, cost, and noise pollution. It explores various solutions to these challenges, including technological advancements like runway status lights and the SESAR solutions used by European airports. Furthermore, the report illustrates the impact of these challenges on various stakeholders, including customers, sponsors, suppliers, and employees, highlighting the consequences of runway incursions and the benefits of capacity enhancements. The conclusion emphasizes the need for proactive measures to address these issues and improve overall airport performance.

Strategic Airport Planning
&
Development

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Explicate planning challenges that are involved within development of terminal, runway
capacity along with accessibility.................................................................................................3
Elucidate ways in which challenges can be addressed................................................................4
Illustrate the impact of various entities on stakeholders.............................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
Strategic planning refers to art associated with formulation of business strategies,
executing them along with evaluation of influence that is being created on organisational
objectives. The emphasis is laid on delivering services in such manner so that need of probable
customers and stakeholders can be accomplished in precise manner (Brockhoff, 2019). The
strategic plan and development provides a place for recording vision, mission as well as values
and long term goals along with probable plan that will be utilised for attaining them. Various
operations are conducted within airport but for this there has to be adequate planning through
which it can be ensured that all the operations are done in precise manner. This report is based on
Heathrow Airport London which is a second busiest airport across the world in context of
international passenger traffic and business airport by passenger traffic in Europe. It acts as
primary operating base for Virgin Atlantic and primary hub to British Airways. This report will
provide an overview of key planning challenges in development of airport. In addition to this,
ways in which challenges can be acknowledged will be furnished. Furthermore, the probable
impact that is being created on stakeholder will be depicted.
Explicate planning challenges that are involved within development of terminal, runway capacity
along with accessibility
The air travel demands are increasing continuously there is need for them to be
operationally effective. Runway capacity is has became a real challenge while taking into
consideration cost, environment along with time implications associated with development of
runways (Choi and Hampton, 2020). The runway capacity of Heathrow Airport London is
retricted and they had 2 runways by which they were not able to accomplish the needs of their
customers to address this they opted for having third runway so that capacity can be increased
But this lead to various other challenges like climatic impact, permissions from the government,
environment protection committees, cost, etc. (Dimitrov and Petrova, 2019). In addition to this,
noise will be the other continuous point of contention for those living near to the airport. These
concerns are being made by EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency), the report illustrated
that as air traffic has grown by near about 3.8% then the carbon dioxide that is emitted has also
increased by around 5.2%. This clearly depicts a major challenge which must be addressed. In
context of Heathrow Airport, they have opted for 5th terminal so that they can provide their
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customers with adequate services and minimize the challenges that are being faced by them due
to this. As per the forestate of probable challenges, Greenpeace (the environmental group) stated
that by expansion of Heathrow there will be more influence on climate which will lead to
creation of 50% more flights and this will also mine UK's ability to underline the targets.
The higher levels of runway usage at airport leaves no scope within timetable for
recovering from any kind of unforeseen incidents. For this, within Heathrow Airport operator
can place various measures through which resilience can be increased that also comprises of
agreeing mechanisms for reduction of flight numbers within adverse weather conditions. The
airport authorities has trialled wide range of measures like operational freedoms that allow
flexible utilization of runways but they have proved controversial and were not executed beyond
trial phase. The proposed position of third runway is anticipated to be build on north-west of
airport in which they will traverse M25 outer beltway traffic along with surrounding
communities. This will be huge engineering challenge for disruption of surrounding traffic.
In context of accessibility, the major challenge is that there will be a 6.4 hour ban for
scheduled night flights for creating a low-emission zone. It is restricted to Greater London this is
due to poor surface transport accessibility that are on the outside areas as the airport is not on the
long distance rail network.
Elucidate ways in which challenges can be addressed
The various aspects have illustrated above which hampers the overall operations of
organisations and relevant countermeasures are needed for handling these so that overall impact
can be minimised. In this context, National Transportation Safety Board have formulated RI
prevention as one of their top priorities with reference to aviation. There are many techniques
that aid to acknowledge problems or challenges with reference to aviation. They includes runway
status lights, cockpit-based surface that involves moving maps (Pandey, 2020). This provides
pilot with relevant dynamic images of Heathrow Airport that provides them with status of
position of their aircraft within this. It will lead to avoid the runway crashes and to have
information whether there is any flight on run way or can land in safely. The other technical
solution that can be opted by Heathrow Airport involves Runway Awareness as well as advisory
system which will not only render flight crew with information related with relative positioning
of aircraft to runway along with this, voice announcements must be provided that will alert them
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with crucial information when they approach critical intersections (FIELDING A LOW-COST
SOLUTION TO RUNWAY INCURSIONS, 2020).
In context of cost involved, the GPS enabled handheld devices such as Blackbery, iPhone
and Android can give excellent performance at low cost for incursion prevention system
(Ramirez, 2019). This will enable pilot to not only depend on airport infrastructure and will also
render different ways to taxi clearance. Along with this, SRAP 200ft will render open access for
various regional airports which are heavily restricted because of noise restrictions (Air traffic
control: Making the best of your assets – a runway package, 2020). The European airports have
tackled current as well as future runway challenges by making use of SESAR solutions which
are being identified within Runway Throughput Package. This has assisted European airports to
have 8% of improvised throughput within different airports. Along with this, delays, operational
resilience and slowing within approaching airport capacity wall is also declined.
In context of technical solution, the TransvisionAiRTM that is a simulation tool according
to which each flight will be planned as well as allocated with a new position for carrying out live
rehearsals. Furthermore, the tool can be developed for semi & full automation of allocation
planning through which the aspect associated with unified baggage system for airlines can be
handled adequately. In this context, ASDE-X airport surface traffic management system is used
by different airport like Heathrow International Airport utilises critical algorithms that are liable
for generating alerts to controllers to vehicle collisions or probable aircraft.
The plan of Heathrow Airport London involves a third space which involves concept of
new terminal that involves integration of public spaces as well as airport that will render hybrid
outdoor as well as indoor spaces. In addition to this, the bridge is to be built on M25 which is
surrounded by probable disruption for traffic (London Heathrow Airport reveals expansion
'masterplan', 2020). For ensuring that, there operations are not hampered, the firm has opted to
formulate Compulsory Purchase Zone so that people can sell their properties easily and other
impacted areas. To minimize the runway noise, the insulation policies are formulated by
Heathrow Airport London as well as they also measure climate change as well as combat air
pollution.
Illustrate the impact of various entities on stakeholders
There are various challenges faced by airports and they are illustrated above which also
have significant impact on stakeholders. They are individuals who can attain certain benefits
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from airport. Like customers can travel from one place to other, sponsors, if things go well then
they can have their payments on time; suppliers are liable to furnish relevant resources to airport
as per their requirements, employees of organisation who can render their services easily and
board of directors (Brockhoff, 2019). Each stakeholder has certain benefits or assets involved
within ways services are being delivered. Various incidents take place due to runway incursions
which leads to loss of life and in year one such incident occur when aircraft lands in runway
without any permission. This leads to delay within schedule of other flight. This creates a
relevant impact on stakeholders; customers have to wait for hours so that they can board on the
flight. The maintenance cost will have to be paid and additional cost is also involved when flight
is being delayed. This leads to creation of pessimistic impact on Heathrow Airport overall
performance of the firm.
Extension of Heathrow's northern runway, the airport capacity can be increased to
700,000 ATMs per year and the peak hour capacity will be enhanced to 128 from 88 ATMs per
hour. This means that enhancements within the capacity will allow hub carrier to enhance their
constrained ability for execution of hub operations. This also implies that connectivity will be
improvised which will lead to create an affirmative influence on stakeholders (Airports
Commission: Heathrow Airport Extended Northern Runway: Business Case and Sustainability
Assessment, 2014). The schemes connectivity benefits are largest which will aid within relevant
enhancement of route network which will further lead to global growth as well as assessment.
The proposed infrastructure developments, in context of terminal space, the Heathrow Airport
have comparatively SPF (space planning factor 7) that will be of 44m2 or DHP that is higher as
compared to larger European Hubs. This will lead them to furnish higher room for
accommodating current passenger numbers. In addition to this, terminals also render passengers
with specified distinct leisure outlets for shopping and dining. This implies that there will be
affirmative influence on stakeholders.
Conclusion
From above it can be concluded that, strategic planning denotes documentation as well as
establishment of directions through which present scenarios can be evaluated to have better
future. It present airports with pivotal role within the ways they responds to challenges and
utilise opportunities. It is necessary to take relevant steps through which carbon dioxide
emission, noise, runway incursions, cost involved and impact on capacity can be decreased to
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have overall affirmative performance. As per the results attained, it is identified the SESAR
solution had great positive influence on European airports thus, other airports can also take
advantage from the same. This will aid to minimise the incidents that occur and will also assist
stakeholders to have enhanced services without any kind of delay.
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References
Books and Journals
Brockhoff, J., 2019. Planning and development in New South Wales. Planning News, 45(4),
p.19.
Choi, W. and Hampton, S., 2020. Scenario-Based Strategic Planning for Future Civil Vertical
Take-off and Landing (VTOL) Transport. Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education &
Research, 29(1), pp.1-31.
Dimitrov, D. and Petrova, I., 2019, October. Strategic planning and development of transport
infrastructures based on agile methodology. In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science
and Engineering (Vol. 664, No. 1, p. 012033). IOP Publishing.
Effendi, I., Musika, L. and Harahap, A.R., 2020. Silangit Airport Development Strategy In
Supporting Improved Economic Growth Of Tourism Sector In North
Sumatra. International Journal of Advances in Social and Economics, 2(2).
Mahamood, T.A. and Waghmare, A.P., 2019. Construction Planning and Management of
Airport: A Case Study of Purandar Airport.
Pandey, M.M., 2020. Evaluating the strategic design parameters of airports in Thailand to meet
service expectations of Low-Cost Airlines using the Fuzzy-based QFD method. Journal
of Air Transport Management, 82, p.101738.
Ramirez, N., 2019. Airport Strategic Planning; Master Planning: An Exploratory Research
Project.
Online
Air traffic control: Making the best of your assets – a runway package. 2020. [Online]. Available
through: <https://www.internationalairportreview.com/article/81875/air-traffic-best-
assets/>.
FIELDING A LOW-COST SOLUTION TO RUNWAY INCURSIONS. 2020. [Online].
Available through: <https://www.mitre.org/publications/project-stories/fielding-a-
lowcost-solution-to-runway-incursions>.
London Heathrow Airport reveals expansion 'masterplan'. 2020. [Online]. Availabile through:
<https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/heathrow-airport-expansion-plans-revealed-intl-
scli-gbr/index.html>.
Airports Commission: Heathrow Airport Extended Northern Runway: Business Case and
Sustainability Assessment. 2014. [Online]. Available through:
<https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/
attachment_data/file/374663/evidence-base-heathrow-airport-extended-northern-
runway.pdf>.
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